“As we expected, they are much less likely to get routine outpatient care but more likely to get acute care, when they are at their sickest,” says Cunningham. “This is just the group that needs to get grassroots outreach service.”
Researchers compared characteristics of HIV-infected adults from two samples: 1,286 people from the 2001-2002 Targeted HIV Outreach and Intervention Initiative and 2,267 who were interviewed in 1998 for the HIV Costs and Services Utilization Study.
The study, to be published in the journal Medical Care, says 59 percent of patients in the Outreach group were Black, compared with 32 percent of HIV-infected people who were receiving routine care and were tracked by HCSUS. Also, 20 percent of those from the Outreach sites were Hispanic, versus 16 percent from the HCSUS sample. Fully 75 percent of the Outreach patents had annual incomes of $10,000 or less, compared with 45 percent in the HCSUS group. Nearly 60 percent were unemployed, homeless, had no insurance or used illegal drugs, compared with less than half in the HCSUS study.
Cunningham says that because of this study, health care providers will know better what kind of services to tailor to these patients.
“They’re not the same kind of services that are important to more mainstream patients,” he says.
— Diverse staff reports
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
